Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland (EnvA) has called on the Federal Environment Minister to refuse, or subject to comprehensive assessment, two closely linked coal mine referrals near Moranbah, warning they would further threaten endangered wildlife, water resources and Australia’s climate commitments.
The submissions relate to Anglo Coal’s Moranbah North Mine – Additional Drainage & Ventilation Surface Disturbance and Grosvenor Mine – Additional Drainage & Ventilation Surface Disturbance referrals.
EnvA acknowledges that ensuring the safety of underground mine workers is paramount and supports measures that genuinely improve mine safety. However, the organisation says safety upgrades should not exempt associated mining expansion from rigorous environmental assessment, particularly where additional habitat loss, greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on water resources are proposed.
Together, the two referrals cover more than 12,800 hectares of land in the Bowen Basin and propose new gas drainage and ventilation infrastructure associated with underground coal mining. The Moranbah North proposal would also extend longwall mining into the neighbouring Grosvenor mining lease.
EnvA argues that the projects are operationally and functionally interdependent and should be assessed together under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act rather than as separate referrals.
EnvA Director Dr Coral Rowston said the projects cannot be viewed in isolation:
“There is no question that protecting mine workers must always be the highest priority. However, measures to improve mine safety should not come at the expense of transparent environmental assessment.
“The referrals are clearly linked. The proposed extension of longwall mining into the Grosvenor lease demonstrates these projects are intended to operate as an integrated mining system.
“Assessing them separately risks understating their true environmental impacts on threatened species, water resources and greenhouse gas emissions.”
EnvA’s submissions identify significant concerns about the scale of habitat likely to be affected across the two projects, including impacts on koala habitat, greater glider habitat, Brigalow ecological communities, squatter pigeon habitat and ornamental snake habitat.
The organisation says the referrals also fail to adequately address cumulative impacts within a region already heavily affected by mining, grazing and land clearing.
“The Bowen Basin has experienced decades of cumulative habitat loss,” Dr Rowston said.
“Every additional clearing proposal further fragment habitat and increases pressure on species that are already declining. These impacts should not be dismissed as merely incremental.”
EnvA has also questioned the lack of project-specific greenhouse gas emissions estimates associated with the proposed gas drainage and ventilation infrastructure.
“The principal purpose of these projects is to facilitate underground coal mining,” Dr Rowston said.
“Methane emissions associated with gas drainage are not incidental—they are an integral consequence of these proposals and should be fully assessed before any decision is made.”
The organisation is also seeking independent advice from the Independent Expert Scientific Committee regarding groundwater modelling, cumulative impacts on water resources and uncertainty associated with the proposals.
EnvA has recommended that the Minister determine the projects would have unacceptable impacts on Matters of National Environmental Significance or, alternatively, declare them controlled actions requiring comprehensive assessment under all relevant controlling provisions.
“The community expects major mining proposals to be assessed transparently and on the basis of their combined environmental impacts.
“These referrals should not be considered in isolation when together they represent a significant expansion of mining activity across the Moranbah-Grosvenor mining complex,” Dr Rowston said.
EnvA - CQ 